The Death Cookie

Whether his lack of reactions made us lower our guard or whether it was just a hope that W would finally be able to eat with some sense of normalcy, W was given a toddler biscuit on Christmas Day.  W, shortly after putting it in his mouth started breaking out into hives around his mouth.We gave him Benadryl, which helped to eliminate the hives.  He was still fussy, and within about 15 minutes, the hives returned dramatically and increased in number.  Then came the vomiting.  Again, it was Linda Blair on steroids. 

What many people assume about allergies is that an Epi Pen is only used in cases where someone's throat is closing up and they can't breathe.  This is not the case.  Our allergy action plan, provided to us by our allergist, lists SEVERAL instances where the Epi Pen should be administered.  Of course in circumstances including swelling of the face and/or throat, but also when there is a combination of symptoms, such as...

You guessed it! Vomiting and extreme hives!

We had to administer the Epi Pen to my sweet, 11 month, baby boy.  And when I say "we", I mean that his pediatrician grandpa and grandma did it while I hide crying in the laundry room. I am not quite sure where my hubby was in all this because again I was hiding. From my spot a safe distance way I did hear the click of the Pen and then the shrieks of my sweet boy. While the epinephrine did rob W of all his coloring, make him very sleepy and clingy, he was dramatically better almost instantly.

There wasn't a need to administer a second Pen as is sometimes the case, but we did have to give him a steady does of Benadryl for three days following.  If we came close to missing one of his doses, the hives would start to pop up again.

After it was all over, four different adults in my family looked at the ingredients list, surmising what the culprit could have been. They cut out the ingredient list and gave it to me to take to the allergist. When I finally took a look at the list myself, I saw it...Whey.  Whey is milk and W has a milk allergy.  Some foods will have allergens bolded or included in a separate place at the bottom following the words "Contains allergens...".  This label had neither, but following the word Whey it did say "(from milk)" which can be confusing.

Not 100% sure that his milk allergy would have cause such an extreme reaction, we took the list to the allergist who suggested testing for wheat and sunflower oil.

Both were positive.

Out of the four main ingredients in the toddler biscuit, W was allergic to three of them.  Thus the reason why the toddler biscuit is hereto-after known as the death cookie.